Leslie Nielsen's Hilarious Comedy With 88% RT Score Is Getting New Life On Streaming Ahead Of Reboot's Release

The 1980s were a critical time for the comedy film. This included coming-of-age comedies from the decade’s legend, John Hughes. In this era, Hughes put out movies such as The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.

In addition to Hughes, who was considered essential to crafting some of the period’s sensibilities, another big name in comedy in that decade was Leslie Nielsen. The actor kicked off the decade with a bang by playing a key character in the 1980 movie Airplane!. This farcical parody comedy was well-received and made over $83 million at the box office on a $5 million budget.

Airplane! is lauded as a classic today, persisting through time after over four decades. As for Nielsen, the actor had a prolific career in the industry that extended throughout the ’80s and ’90s. He lived to be 84 years old, pᴀssing away in 2010.

Nielsen also had another key role in the later 1980s that would come to be right up there with Airplane! as one of his most famous parts. Now, that film is getting a new life on streaming again, prior to a key release.

The Reboot Film Releases This Weekend

Leslie Nielsen as Frank Drebin making a silly face in The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear

The Naked Gun: From the Files of The Police Squad! is now a streaming hit. The 1988 movie was a spinoff of Nielsen’s own parody TV show Police Squad! from six years earlier. In it, he reprised his role as Detective Frank Drebin, a struggling police officer who is tasked with thwarting an ᴀssᴀssination attempt on Queen Elizabeth II.

The Naked Gun was well-received, getting an 88% Tomatometer and making $78.7 million at the worldwide box office. It got two more Nielsen-led sequel films. This year, the franchise is continuing in the form of a legacy sequel, The Naked Gun, which stars Liam Neeson. It is releasing this weekend, starting on August 1.

As per FlixPatrol, the first Naked Gun movie is now trending on streaming. The film came in at no. 5 on Paramount+’s top 10 movies in the United States today, July 31. It beat out other movies, including 2004’s Mean Girls, Extract, and The Lincoln Lawyer.

What This Means For The Naked Gun Franchise

This Is A Good Sign For The Reboot At The Box Office

This streaming trend is a good sign for Neeson’s The Naked Gun as it hits theaters this weekend. The movie has already gotten good reviews, scoring a 91% Tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes. This included an 8 out of 10-star review from ScreenRant‘s Zachary Moser, who noted how funny the legacy sequel was.

If the positive reviews were not a good enough sign, the Nielsen film’s streaming trend will be a further push for The Naked Gun at the box office. People are aware enough of the legacy sequel that they are tuning in to watch the film, which may compel them to go see the latest work in theaters.

Source: FlixPatrol